Missing Magic (17 page)

“No.” Dropping the cloth into the water,
Cenrick dared the mage to argue. “I’m staying.”

“Then hold her hands, in case she wakes. I
can’t have her moving when I’m inside her skin.”

Heart in his throat, Cenrick did as Mort
requested. Her small hands were cold and lifeless, which terrified
him.

He kept his gaze on her face while the Mage
searched for the bullet.

“I found it.” Triumphant, Mort held up the
bloody piece of metal in his gloved fingers. “Now I will disinfect
this and sew her up. She should be good as new.”

Good as new. While the mage worked, Cenrick
thought of the shooter. He wanted to go back, right now, and find
the one who had done this to her. And when he did…

Suddenly, he remembered the envelope. Did she
still have it? He remembered she’d slipped it into her back pocket.
He glanced at Dee, still unconscious. Perhaps whatever was inside
would reveal clues to their enemy’s whereabouts.

“Finished.” Satisfaction rang in Mort’s
voice. “You can let her go now.”

Cenrick placed her hands at her sides. Then,
gently, he slid his hand under her backside, locating the brown
envelope and pulling it from her pocket.

“What is that?” Mort regarded him
curiously.

“This is what we were retrieving when someone
shot at us.” Peeling back the flap, he opened the envelope.

Inside, he found several photographs. The
first one was of some kind of machine, the second showed the blond
woman – Natasha, standing next to it, her expression cold and
triumphant. In the third, Mick had joined her, looking solemnly
worried. And the fourth – oh, the fourth – showed the Fae man known
as Galyeon, strapped into the machine and screaming.This man had
been among the Oracle’s Soulless.

“How long before Dee wakes?”

“I don’t know. But I promise to make certain
she feels no pain.” He indicated his stock of medicines. Something
he saw in Cenrick’s face must have alarmed him. “You cannot wake
her now. She will suffer too much.”

Looking at her, so pale, so still, Cenrick
knew the Mage was right. “I know.” He took a deep breath. “But as
soon as she is able, I must show her these.”

“May I?” Mort held out his hand.

“They show the machine that steals Fae
souls.” Cenrick handed him the envelope.

Pouring over them, Mort grunted. When he’d
finished, he looked at Cenrick, eyes glowing with
determination.

“It is this machine which you must find and
destroy.”

“We,” Cenrick corrected. “Dee and I.”

“Time is of the essence.” Mort glanced at
Dee, still unconscious. “She will not be capable of movement for
many days.”

“Say you that I should go without her? The
Oracle said it will take two of us to vanquish this thing.”

“True. You have no protection without
her.”

“Yet each moment I delay, more Fae souls are
lost.” Cenrick shifted restlessly. “I must try. I see no other
alternative.”

“But what if it takes you? Rune cannot lose
you now.”

“That’s a risk I’ll have to take.” Cenrick
shrugged. “This must be stopped. I’ll go alone. When she’s well
enough, I’ll come back for her.”

“No.” Dee, her voice weak, raised her head.
“I’m part of this too. No way are you leaving me here.”

Cenrick crossed to her side, placing a gentle
kiss on her forehead. “You must heal. This will take more than mere
hours.”

She gaze up at him with eyes bleary from
pain. “Time,” she croaked. “Change time.” Then she lapsed once more
into unconsciousness.

Mort shook his head. “If she awakens again,
we must give her this draught to ease the pain.”

“She has a point.” Cenrick dragged his hand
across his face. “When you send us across the veil, you can control
the time of our arrival.”

“True. I can arrange your arrival so no time
is lost.”

Nodding, Cenrick pulled a chair up to Dee’s
side, taking her hand. “Then that settles it. We’ll stay here while
she heals. Then you can send us back to the same time, same place,
and only minutes while have elapsed since we left.”

“I don’t know…” Mort didn’t sound happy.
“What about the shooter? He could be there, waiting to finish you
off.”

“Do you want this machine destroyed?”

“Of course.”

“Then do as I ask. Once Dee is healed, return
us to right after she was shot.”

“Time travel is still an imprecise skill,”
Mort warned, his brown creased with worry. “While I can usually
nail it within hours, I don’t know about minutes.”

“Do the best you can. I’m sure an hour will
be fine. Your best is all I can ask.”

Dee moaned, stirring restlessly. Smoothing
the hair from her brow, this time Cenrick didn’t hide his emotion
from the Mage. He couldn’t stop touching her, reassuring himself
she still lived.

“She sleeps peacefully,” Mort said. “Let her
rest.”

Reluctantly, Cenrick forced himself to remove
his hand from her hair. Watching her chest rise and fall with her
every breath, he hated to take his gaze off her, even for a second.
“I’ll wait here by her side until she’s better.”

“As you wish.”

As he looked from her to the Mage, he
surprised an anguished look on the older man’s face. “Mort? What’s
wrong?”

“You are like a son to me.” The simple
explanation touched Cenrick’s heart. “I couldn’t bear to lose
you.”

“You won’t. Dee will be with me.”

“True, but I couldn’t live with myself if by
manipulating time, I place both of your lives in danger.”

“That’s a chance we’ll have to take. The
Soulless Ones need our help.” And Cenrick settled down to watch and
wait.

Dee healed in record time – if she hadn’t
known better, she would have thought she’d dreamt the entire
shooting episode. But this was Rune, a world full of Magic, and
Mort was apparently a wizard of great skill.

To her though, it seemed she went to sleep
one night and when she woke in the morning, the gaping wound in her
side had nearly healed.

“How did you do this?” She asked, amazed at
the healthy pink skin where before had been a bloody hole.
Puckering edges of new skin surrounding her wound. As far as she
could tell, there were no stitches, nothing to hold the damaged
parts together to heal.

With a shrug, Mort smiled. “Magic, of
course.”

The chair beside her bed was empty.

“Where is Cenrick?”

“He refused to leave you and has spent many
nights in that chair. I finally forced him to seek his own bed and
rest. I promised to wake him when you woke, but he needs his sleep.
He’ll need all his wits about him to fight this enemy.”

“Oh.” Oddly disappointed, she shifted in her
bed. “Did he say anything about the envelope we retrieved?”

“Yes. He left with you, here.” Mort handed
her the manila envelope.

Pulling out the photos, she began looking
through them. “Has Cenrick seen this?”

He nodded. “Yes.”

“So that’s the machine.” She tapped one photo
with her index finger. “And there’s that woman scientist, Natasha
Klein. She’s behind all this.”

At the next photograph, she froze. “Mick,”
she said softly. “He’s only in this one picture. At least there
aren’t any showing him strapped into the machine like this poor
man.”

“Galyeon, poor thing. He’s with the Oracle
now.”

Soulless
. The word hung between them,
unsaid.

“What do you think Natasha is doing with
their souls once she takes them?”

Mort’s silver eyes were troubled. “I don’t
know. I’m thinking she’s somehow found a way to extract the magic
and use it for herself.”

“But she’s human, isn’t she?”

“Yes.”

“Then how is such a thing possible.

“That my dear,” Mort’s expression grim, he
kissed her cheek. “Is for you and Cenrick to find out. When you’re
well, of course.”

Experimentally, she raised herself up on her
elbows, bracing against pain. Nothing. Not even a twinge. Even when
she pushed herself to a full sitting position, she experienced
absolutely no discomfort.

“If only real life could be like this.” She
swung her legs over the side of the bed, absurdly shaky. “I’d like
to try standing.”

Mort made no move to help her. “Go ahead.
You’re perfectly capable, now.”

And so she was.

After taking several wobbly steps, she turned
to look at the Mage. “How long has Cenrick slept?”

He looked perplexed. “A few hours now.
Why?”

“Please take me to him. It’s time. I’ve had
enough resting and recuperating. I want to go home.”

Nodding, he led the way.

Cenrick slept on his back, arms flung out and
only his lower body covered by a sheet. Such a rush of emotion
struck her when she saw him, she staggered.

“Are you all right?” Mort watched her
closely.

She nodded. “Let me wake him.”

With trembling fingers, she brushed the hair
from his brown, tracing the shape of his jaw.

“Dee?” His eyes opened, surprise chasing away
the sleep. “You’re here? I’m not dreaming?”

With a little laugh, she kissed him. “No, I’m
really here, all healed and ready for action.”

He lifted a brow. Too late, she caught the
double meaning and blushed.

“Let me see you.” He sat up, running his
hands down her sides tenderly. Lifting her shirt, he studied her
wound, touching the slightly raised area with a gentle touch. “You
are
healed!” he exclaimed.

Then he pulled her close for a long, deep
kiss.

Too late, she remembered the Mage. But when
she broke the kiss and raised her head to look for him, she saw
he’d left.

An hour later, they found Mort in his
chamber. Dee could feel her color rising as he studied them, his
silver gaze giving nothing away. “Are you ready to return?”

“Yes.” Dee gripped Cenrick’s hand.
“Hopefully, we’ll hit the right time.”

Mort spoke a few words, and the tingling
started.

Holding tight to Cenrick, Dee felt the
rushing of time.

They materialized in the parking lot in the
aftermath of the shooting, twenty feet from where they’d been shot.
Dee’s blood was still a wet puddle on the ground.

“Yuck,” she said, eying the crimson stain and
self-consciously touching her freshly healed side. “I wonder if the
gunman’s gone.”

“Come on, let’s check.” A thorough search of
the lot turned up nothing, other than ordinary shoppers returning
to their cars.

“I’m guessing no one heard anything?”

“He had a silencer,” Dee pointed out. She
winced as they walked past her bloodstain. “Double yuck.”

“I thought blood didn’t bother police
officers.” Cenrick took her arm. “I was guessing you’d be used to
it.”

“Normally, we are. But it’s different when
it’s your own.”

“Check your watch.” Still holding her,
Cenrick continued to search the parking garage. “Do you remember
what time the shooting occurred?”

“Hell, no. I was taken totally by surprise.”
Lifting her wrist, she peered at the silver dial and frowned. “It’s
a bit past ten-thirty. The mall opens at ten. We haven’t been gone
long at all.”

In the distance they heard sirens
approaching.

“Great. Someone must have called the
police.”

“Come on.” Pulling him along with her, Dee
headed for her car. “That would mean our assailant is gone for
sure. I’d like to get out of here before any of my former
co-workers arrive.”

They’d reached her car and started the
ignition when several police cruisers, lights flashing, pulled into
the lot. Several more blocked the exits.

“I bet they’ve sealed off the place. It’s
what I would do.”

“Now what?”

“We have no choice.” She shrugged. “We sit
tight and do as we’re told.”

“Out of the car.” A loud, distorted voice
ordered. “Keep your hands above your heads.”

“Bullhorn,” Dee said. “Do as he says.”

Hands up in the air, they emerged from the
car.

Two cops approached, one from each side, with
weapons drawn and pointed at them. One of the cops was Officer
Lieber, the one who’d come to her apartment.

“You again,” he said, disgust evident in both
his voice and his expression. “What’re you doing this time, running
drugs?”

“Officer Lieber, that is uncalled for.” A
different voice, this time belonging to another man. “Put down your
weapons, people.”

“That’s Lieutenant Cowell,” Dee said. “My
boss and,” she looked at Lieber. “His.”

Reluctantly, or at least it seemed so to
Cenrick, Lieber lowered his pistol.

“What happened here?”

Stone-faced, Dee shook her head. “I don’t
know. My friend and I just finished shopping at the mall. We were
about to leave when you guys showed up.”

“We had reports of a shooting.”

“A shooting?” She shot Cenrick a look of
disbelief. “I didn’t hear anything.”

Cenrick could only pray no one asked him a
direct question. Fae were unable to lie.

Lieber glared at them, his mouth twisted as
though he’d swallowed something rotten.

Lieutenant Cowell stepped forward, his gaze
on Dee. “Officer Bishop, with the investigation into your alleged
misconduct still ongoing, need I remind you of the advisability of
keeping yourself clean?”

She gave him a suitably chastened look. “No
sir. But honestly, I didn’t see anything.”

That was true. Neither of them had seen a
thing.

“There’s blood over here,” someone shouted.
“A fair amount of it.”

“Look for a body. Or a trail.”

A few minutes later, the reply came back.
“The trail ends nowhere. And there’s no body.”

“Find out how old the blood is,” Cowell
ordered. Lieber scurried off to do his bidding.

When they were alone, the Lieutenant frowned
at Dee. “Mighty odd coincidence, don’t you think, you being here
and all?”